Why Did Obama Change His Name?

Newsweek:

Barry Obama decided that he didn't like his nickname. A few of his friends at Occidental College had already begun to call him Barack (his formal name), and he'd come to prefer that. The way his half sister, Maya, remembers it, Obama returned home at Christmas in 1980, and there he told his mother and grandparents: no more Barry. Obama recalls it slightly differently, but in the same basic time frame. He believes he told his mom he wanted to be called Barack when she visited him in New York the following summer. By both accounts, it seemed that the elder relatives were reluctant to embrace the change. Maya recalls that Obama's maternal grandparents, who had played a big role in raising him, continued long after that to call him by an affectionate nickname, "Bar." "Not just them, but my mom, too," says Obama.

Why did Obama make the conscious decision to take on his formal African name? His father was also Barack, and also Barry: he chose the nickname when he came to America from Kenya on a scholarship in 1959. His was a typical immigrant transition. Just as a Dutch woman named Hanneke might become Johanna, or a German named Matthias becomes Matt, the elder Barack wanted to fit in. America was a melting pot, and it was expected then that you melt--or at least smooth some of your more foreign edges.

Read the whole story: Newsweek

Comments

[Shozen]

WTF? Because he became an Adult? Some people prefer to be called by their nickname others by their formal name. Big Whoop! Lets find something actually newsworth to write up about.

[Lonie]

Barack changed his name to....Barack!! Whoa. Used to be called Barry. How the heck do you get Barry from Barack? Can't imagine college buds picking a nickname like that. And why would he drop his nickname when he became an adult? What's he trying to hide this time? Nobody assumes their real name when they grow up. OK, Crazy Jack McCain did. But "Bill" Clinton didn't. Very few know his actual name is "William," the very name he used to avoid the draft! Then there was that Frankie Roosevelt who mysteriously morphed into Franklin. And how about that "Ike" guy?

[PJay]

This article is nothing more than a small minded appeal to small minded xenophobes like Pat Buchanan, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, et al. Nothing to see here.

[EinChicago]

Don;t forget the 70% or so of the general voting population.

[Rog49Thomas]

Please don't insult the small minded with such a comparison.

[KarenZipdrive]

Had he kept the nickname Barry, right now the GOP would be raising hell about him trying to disguise his African name.
This is a bullshit topic. Boys grow up to be men. My brother Billy now introduces himself as Bill.
In the words of Dick Cheney, so?

[Freddy334]

Obama and his pastor are racists. He refers to his grandmother as a "typical white person." He is a bigot like his pals Jesse Jackson and Farrakhan.

[Shozen]

If he was a tenth as bigoted as you, I would be worried.

[lvogt]

You are either mistaken or dishonest.

[bdl0715]

Do we need to keep repeating this? His Pastor was quoting a white, former US Ambassador, when he said the phrase, God Damn America. It is a 5 second sound bite out of an hour long sermon.

[Jeff1958]

Obama is NOT a racist. What a stupid thing to say. His reference to his grandmother, was about one minute (over a 20 something year relationship). Talk about taking things out of context. Secondly, Obama is 50% black, 50% white, so he'd be carrying some hefty baggage if he was a racist. [Which race is he a racist against?]

[beright]

Talk about cringing. Everyone seems to be forgetting that his MOTHER NAMED HIM BARACK, period. The fact that his white family members wanted to avoid his African roots, bears to mind the "typical white person" comment he made. That's right, white people are typically uncomfortable with anything African, anything black. Barack didn't go from being Barry to Barack. To the contrary, he went from being Barack to being Barry--then he went back to being who he is and dropped the false identity that others had imposed on him. He dropped the weight of conformity and stepped into the limelight of self-acceptance, period. Slavery took away black poeples' names, don't forget. To name yourself is the highest act of personal power.

[globalwarmingisgreat]

Arianna and Hilary are just nervous about the fact that Obama recently refused AIPAC "funding."

[jubo]

His first name is Barack, not Bartholomew.

'typical immigrant transition' also involved cultural obliteration by cause of acute xenophobia

[beright]

Cultural obliteration by cause of slavery...did you see the movie Roots by Alex Haley? Remember the sceen with the slave master whipping Kente and telling him that he would call himself Toby?

nough said.

[DrToketee]

Such an irresponsible title for this article. In fact, the title is an outright lie. Obama NEVER changed his name. Shame on you, authors.

[Groobiecat]

Yeah, this shouldn't even BE an article. It's nonsensical and a wate of time.

[SoulSistah]

Click the link to the entire story. It's much, much more than about a name change. The title is very misleading . . . as is the first two paragraphs posted here. The article is 7, 7+ pages long.

[Cunningham]

You'll get a lot more information about the man by reading his books, checking out his website, and listening to his Q & A sessions and speeches.

Quoting Charles Krauthammer in an article about Barack Obama just goes to show what a rag Newsweek has become.

[Cunningham]

He probably wanted to drop the nickname for the same reason that Danny wants to be called Dan or Daniel when he's no longer a child; or Susie wants to be called Sue, Susan, or Suzanne; or Johnny wants to be called by a grown-up name.

What a waste of space, Newsweek, Richard Wolffe, Jessica Ramirez and Jeffrey Bartholet.
It took 3 writers to come up with that garbage?

[ultramagnetic]

Oh for God's sake. How many of us knew a "Muffy" in HIgh School who we know call by her given name Margaret. Talk about a tabloid headline. Now the new rumor will be 'Barack's real name was Barry. He changed it to sound more like a black radical." Newsweek has hit a new low.

[avicenna]

It's a reflection of his very consistant authenticity. Why pretend to be something other than you are? Barack obviously didn't feel a need to make himself bland enough to be palatable by a hypocritical society.

[kaafir]

Another interesting tidbit burried in the Newsweek article is that BarracK Hussein Obama did in fact attend Islamic classes every week at a public school in Indonesia.

[SayonaraSnot]

Were these classes part of a national Indonesian public school curriculum (i.e. not optional), much like Catholic classes are in the Irish National Schools today???

[SoulSistah]

Exactly. This is a very long and informative article. It is much more than about a so-called name change. The title is slighly misleading. The entire article is a good read.

[kaafir]

Islamic classes are not compulsory for non-muslims in Indonesia. It is compulsory for muslims.

[avicenna]

They must have a very high standard of education - something that perhaps American public school can learn something from... given the failing Bush "no child left behind" - a stellar example of an "American" school system. The type of person Obama turned out to be is something that American school children can aspire to, and his obvious wisdom and articulate nature was likely nurtured during his formative years. Compared to Bush junior - he could do with a few more remedial classes. As an interesting tidbit, the first Universities and institutes of higher learning were also Islamic schools - and most of the sciences (algebra, chemistry, calculus etc) have their roots in the Middle East. So, perhaps we should spend more time exploring how to improve the standard of learning of America's woeful education system instead of repeatedly scandalously gasping how this intelligent man became so intelligent.

[kaafir]

The ummah have long since lost their prominence in the sciences, by about a 1000 years. There is nothing wrong with being a muslim. But the American public have a right to know. Why does he want to hide that? Is he ashamed of that?

[midwestvoter]

Improving US education will insure death to the Republican party. Keeping the sheep ignorant and intellectually in-curious is by design.

[SoulSistah]

Ohhhhh no, he attended Islamic classes as a child in a school where his mother placed him while she worked for the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia. He should have ran away from home, disowned (or better yet, publicly denounced) his mother and begged for change so he could buy a ticket back to the USA.

Thank you for that damning piece of enlightenment kaafir. That Barack Obama and his worldly mother, how dare they experience other cultures. Hmmp, why can't he be uninformed and ignorant. Those are the traits we seek in a president.
.....................................
no more bcbc

[Geoffreys]

I'm a Protestant but studied the Koran and Islam when I attended a Catholic university. Does that mean I'm now Muslim as well?

[kaafir]

You studied the Quran as an adult and there is nothing wrong with that. But the issue here is not whether Obama is a muslim or not a muslim. It is clear that has an adult he made a conscious decision guided by Rev Wright, to join the Church he did and is therefore a practicing Christian. What is at issue is Obama's honesty. He attended a public school in Indonesia and attended Islamic classes there. It is not compulsory for non-muslims to attend such classes. So why did he in fact attend those classes. Was he brought up as a muslim in his initial years? And if the answer is yes, again there is nothing wrong with that.

[SoulSistah]

Dropping a nickname is not changing a name. I had expected to read how he changed his legal name. The media certainly is obsessed with our guy Obama. I can understand why. They are truly fascinated by the People's Choice.

[SayonaraSnot]

This article is such crap. I know quite a few European-American immigrants: Mieke, Petra, Ditte, and Milena - to name a few - and they have never received an ounce of grief for refusing to "Americanize" their name. What the hell, is this the 50's or something?

"Barack" is a gorgeous name. It means "Blessed". "Barry" is a goofy name (no offense to any proud Barrys out there in intertube land). Barack was, by all accounts, a serious boy who evolved into a serious student, and wanted to be taken seriously. I'm 100% sure his desire to be called by his given name is a direct consequence of that.